Halloween Revelation
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: In the morning of that fateful Halloween day, Voldemort informs Severus Snape about his plan to go after the Potters. If Severus warns them, he is going to die, so that he is forced to work on a plan. Will he succeed? Completely AU, partly OOC.


**Halloween Revelation**  
**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

* * *

Severus Snape walked back to the castle in a daze, neither noticing the yellow, orange and red leaves that were emerging from the early morning mist and dancing all over the grounds, nor realising that a squirrel stepped into his way just for an instant before it hopped away towards the forest.

_'Lily,'_ he thought, horrified. 'I _can't allow that to happen. If I warn her, I'm going to be dead though,'_ he mused. _'But that's still better than knowing that she was killed and I could have prevented it.' _When the Dark Lord had called him at five o'clock in the morning of this tragic Halloween day, he had immediately known that the news would not be good. _'Perhaps he wants to test me,'_ he mused. _'He probably knows that Lily is still very close to me even if she's married to Potter now.' _He did not hear the caretaker shout behind him about muddy shoes and cleaning the entrance hall, as he strode back to his private quarters, deep engrossed in dark thoughts.

Completely forgetting that he had to inform the Headmaster about his earlier meeting with the Dark Lord, he let himself sink into his favourite armchair in front of the fireplace to enjoy some quiet minutes before the beginning of the first morning class.

He spent the whole morning pondering the matter, while he absentmindedly observed his students brew. Only after the last morning class, he made a decision, just when Minerva came through the Floo to fetch him for lunch, complaining that he had already missed breakfast.

"I'm sorry Minerva, but I have an urgent potion to brew, and after the last afternoon class, I'll be away for about an hour. Please tell Albus that I'm going to inform you both about everything later on," he told the Scottish lioness in determination.

He strode into his private lab, skimming several books, while he turned the potions' effects in his mind. _'It must be harmful but not too much,'_ he thought, feverishly.

It took him an hour to decide on an adequate potion, the first afternoon class to brew it and the second afternoon class to make the antidote, which he filled in six small phials, knowing that the baby would need one small phial of it every two hours. _'Even if she takes him here quickly, they won't be able to return there before the morning,'_ he reassured himself. He pocketed the potion, leaving the phials with the antidote in his lab, before he strode towards the hospital wing to speak with his second best friend.

"Severus," Poppy spoke up in apparent concern. "You look horrible. Are you ill?"

"No Poppy," he replied swiftly, rolling his eyes at the unnecessary fuss. "I'm fine. However, I need you to do me a favour."

"Of course dear," Poppy said, smiling at him without wiping the concern off her face.

"First of all, don't ask," Severus instructed her. "Secondly, you might need a potion later on, and in case something happens to me, you'll find it on the table in my lab. And thirdly, please help me to cast a charm at myself that makes me invisible and soundless for at least an hour. You know that I'm rubbish at Charms."

Poppy let out a long sigh, before she finally nodded her head and answered. "All right Severus. I don't like it, but I trust you. I'm going to cast the charm now."

She waved her wand at him, something which he usually absolutely detested. This time, however, he forced himself to thank the Healer when she let her wand sink. With that he hurriedly left the castle and strode towards the Apparition border, invisible to the students, who were roaming the grounds to enjoy what was left of the beautiful autumn day.

_'I hope everything will work out as I planned it,'_ he mused, before he concentrated on the task ahead and apparated away.

HP

Lily was sitting on the floor in her living room, helping Harry to do the huge floor puzzle of Hogwarts, which he had received from his 'Gwanny Mina', as he called her mentor and former teacher, for his birthday.

"Mama, go Hoga Gwanny Mina?" Harry suddenly asked, when he proudly looked at the finished puzzle, causing Lily to inwardly sigh.

"Yes sweetie, after Halloween, I'm going to Floo call Granny Minerva to ask when we can visit her," she then promised, making a huge smile appear on the child's face.

_'If we're still alive after tonight,'_ she mused, while Harry toddled away to fetch his teddy and a book. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Lily was a Seer. She didn't know when the scenes that she had witnessed in her visions were going to occur, but she was fairly sure that she and James were going to die very soon. _'I wished I could be here longer for my baby,'_ she thought, biting back the tears that welled up in her eyes, when Harry returned with teddy and a book, giving her a bright smile.

She picked up the fifteen-months-old and laid him next to her on the sofa, before she began to read his new children's book to him about a little wizard who transformed into a reindeer and helped Father Christmas to pull his sleigh and give many presents to the children. Only half-way through the story, his breathing evened out, and she looked at her sleeping baby, smiling proudly.

_'I hope he'll end up with Alice,'_ she mused. _'I don't trust Sirius to properly raise my son.'_ She sighed again, when her thoughts wandered to her best friend. _'I wished Severus could raise him. He'd be a wonderful father to him, even without knowing that Harry is his son.' _In fact, she and Severus had married out of Hogwarts, and the two years of marriage with him had been the best time of her life. However, all of a sudden, he had decided that it was too dangerous for her to be married to him and had urged her to divorce and marry James. Lily had not agreed; however, she had forced herself to listen to Severus, for the baby's sake. _'Stupid,'_ she muttered to herself, _'I should have stayed with him, especially if I'm not safe with James anyway. I'd have wanted Harry to grow up with his real father.'_

She couldn't prevent the tears running down her cheeks anymore. _'Severus,'_ she mused, _'it's as if he was here with me. All of a sudden, I can even smell him. I so love his characteristic smell of fresh herbs.'_ Raising both hands, she wiped the tears from her cheeks. _'Now I really have to get a grip on myself,'_ she scolded herself and stood up from the sofa in determination.

She leaned into the fireplace and called her old friend Minerva, sighing in relief, when the professor appeared in the flames right away.

"Lily," Minerva greeted her in apparent surprise. "How are you, dear?"

"Minerva," Lily replied, trying in vain to push back the tears. "I need to ask a favour of you," she said, urgently. "If anything happens to me, please see to it that our will will be ignored and that Severus takes Harry in. No one knows about this, but he's Harry's real father." Seeing that the professor was listening quietly, she added, "Poppy prolonged my pregnancy, so only she knows. Only tell anyone if I die though."

"All right Lily," Minerva replied, giving her a concerned look. "Why don't you come over with Harry over the weekend, and we'll take some time to speak about everything?"

_'If I'm still alive by then,'_ Lily thought but merely nodded and said, "All right Minerva, but please keep in mind what I told you, in case anything happens before then."

HP

In complete shock, Severus apparated back to Hogsmeade. _'I have just made MY baby sick?'_ he thought with a combination of disbelief and horror. _'Ten months,'_ he mused, as he strode up towards the castle without registering his surroundings for the second time on this Halloween day. _'That's possible then.'_ His thoughts went haywire as he returned towards the solace of his quarters. _'Hopefully, the potion will kick in quickly. It should, since I spelled it straight into his bloodstream. I just hope Lily will bring him to Poppy and not to St. Mungo's. Oh well, usually she does,'_ he tried to calm himself in vain. _'I just hope that I made the dummies correctly and that I managed the charm to have them activated when Lily leaves with Harry.'_

Reaching the dungeons, he turned on his heels and walked all the way back to the entrance hall, deciding to pay the Headmaster a much needed visit.

HP

"Hello my dear boy," Dumbledore greeted him, before he asked in apparent concern, "Where have you been?"

Looking from the Headmaster to his deputy, Severus explained, "The Dark Lord is going to go after the Potters tonight." Seeing that Dumbledore immediately rose from his chair turning to the fireplace, Severus held up his hand to stop the old wizard. "Albus, you must not do anything now. I've already taken the matter into my hands." Hesitantly, he explained what he had done and not done as well as the potential consequences of each possible actions.

"Very well, then we can only wait for the time being," Dumbledore replied, thoughtfully. "What about James?"

"He wasn't at home when I went there. I suppose that he's still at the Ministry, working," Severus replied, shrugging. "I don't know how I could save him." _'Apart from the fact that I don't really want it,'_ he thought to himself.

HP

Lily had just returned to the sofa, deep in thoughts, when Harry woke up, letting out a miserable moan that soon turned into a wail.

"What's wrong sweetie?" Lily cooed, gently pulling the baby onto her lap. _'Oh no,'_ she thought and her eyes widened in shock upon the heat that the child radiated. His cheeks had an uncharacteristically dark red colour, and his eyes looked unfocussed and ill. _'He's sick,'_ she realised, terrified. _'Just what we needed now.'_ Pulling her wand out of her robe pocket, she pointed it at his head, only to confirm that the baby's fever was exceeding forty degrees.

Harry let out a few weak coughs, looking at her from half open, glassy eyes.

_'I need to take him to a Healer,'_ she realised. _'But St. Mungo's would be too dangerous.'_ "Come Harry," she cooed, "let's go to Hogwarts and ask Aunt Poppy to make you all better now, will we?"

"Ye," Harry replied, miserably, and his lower lip was quivering dangerously, when she stepped into the fireplace with the sick child.

HP

Madam Pomfrey looked at the fireplace in surprise, seeing Lily step out with Harry in her arms. "Hello Lily and Harry," she said, friendly, giving the child a smile that the boy not returned in spite of his usually cheery self.

"Harry is ill, Poppy," Lily explained, sighing. "Until an hour ago, he was completely well, and then all of a sudden, he began to moan and was burning up."

"Come with me," Poppy said, gently, and led the upset young woman into one of the small teacher's rooms behind her office. She motioned Lily to sit on the bed and try to lay down the baby next to her, before she began to wave her wand over the child. "He's suffering from the Grindylow fever," she finally diagnosed. "I'll ask Severus for the potion for it."

"Will he be all right?" Lily asked, horrified.

"Yes dear," Poppy replied in a soothing voice. "He'll probably need a few doses of the potion for the Grindylow fever for babies, but by tomorrow he'll be as right as rain again."

"Thank Merlin," Lily thought aloud and cuddled Harry close, while the Healer left the room to call her colleague.

HP

Severus was pacing his lab, unable to divert his thoughts from Lily and her son. No, his son. 'Really?' he wondered with a combination of surprise and disbelief. _'Why did she never tell me? Even if it was a secret and I wouldn't be able to officially accept him as my son, I'd be happy to know that he was mine,'_ he thought, jerking out of his stupor when he heard the fireplace in the living room flare. It was Poppy.

"I need the potion for the Grindylow fever for a baby," Poppy informed him, giving him a pleading look.

Severus fetched the potion from his lab, before he suddenly gripped his arm. "Oh no, he's calling me," he breathed. "I need to go. Can you please inform Albus?"

"Yes I will," Poppy reassured him. "Just be careful and come back safely dear."

HP

While Lily had tea with Poppy, observing Baby Harry sleep with his belly full of potions, Severus followed the Dark Lord to Godric's Hollow, together with Crabbe and Goyle. _'Thank Merlin Lily is safe,' _he thought, as they reached the Potters' house.

"Stay here," the Dark Lord ordered them, and the three hooded men watched the Dark Lord enter the house.

From that point onwards, Severus could only follow what was happening inside from the sounds that penetrated his ears. _'That must have been Potter,'_ he thought upon hearing the first dark spell being cast. A little while later that seemed to him like an infinite time, he could see several spells being cast on the second floor, and once again he hoped deeply that his plan with the dummies had worked.

To their surprise, the Dark Lord did not return, and after twenty minutes had passed in front of the burning house, Crabbe suggested, "Let's go home. He'll call us to tell us what happened."

Goyle immediately agreed, and Severus feigned his consent. However, as soon as the two Death Eaters had apparated away, he hurried inside the house that was already a ruin. He saw James on the first floor and carefully climbed upstairs, where he only found Harry's dummy, alive. The baby was standing in the crib, crying and pressing a small hand against his bleeding forehead.

"Finite incantatem," Severus cast at the dummy, causing it to vanish for good. _'Lily's dummy must have died so that it has vanished as well, but there's no sign of the Dark Lord. I wonder if he apparated away or what happened. He said he'd return outside, where he made us wait. Strange,'_ he mused. He absentmindedly picked up Harry's teddy from inside the crib and pocketed it, knowing from his few visits with Lily and Harry how much Harry adored his teddy.

Suddenly, he heard voices outside and hurriedly apparated away, wondering who was going to give Lily the latest news.

HP

To everyone's surprise, Lily remained relatively calm at the news of her husband's death. "I knew that it was going to happen," she said in a small voice, looking from Severus to Minerva and Poppy, who had all joined her and Harry in the small hospital room. "It was just a fantastic timing that Harry and I were here," she added, thoughtfully.

"That it was," Severus said in a soothing voice, gently placing his arm around her shoulders.

Lily leaned into her best friend's embrace, feeling extremely consoled by his presence, until Professor Dumbledore entered the room and asked Severus to join him for a meeting with the Aurors.

"I'll come back afterwards," Severus promised and followed the Headmaster out of the room, placing Harry's teddy into the child's arm as he crossed the room.

"Lily, considering the fantastic timing," Poppy spoke up, gently, "I believe that you have to thank Severus for saving your life tonight." She remained quiet for an instant, before she added, "Don't be upset with him for not saving James too. He's been working on saving you and Harry the whole day."

"He came to our house this afternoon," Lily finally realised. "I knew that he was there. I could feel him, could sense his smell of herbs, which I'd recognise as his smell anywhere. So he made Harry sick so that I'd take him here and be safe? But why didn't he just tell me?"

"It would have been too dangerous for you and him," Minerva replied in a soft voice. "If word had got out that you had been warned, Voldemort would have killed Severus."

"Oh all right," Lily said in understanding, her thoughts going haywire.

"Lily," Minerva spoke up again. "I also believe that it's time that you tell Severus about his parentage."

"Exactly," Poppy agreed. "Harry will need a father, you're in need of a father for Harry, and it'll do Severus good to have family.

"Yes, I'll tell Severus," Lily replied in determination. "Harry will need him now."

"You're going to tell me exactly what?" Severus queried, as he entered the room, smirking. "That Harry is my son?" Inwardly grinning upon seeing Lily's surprised expression, he continued, "The Dark Lord seems to be gone, even if I don't think that he'll be gone forever. I know that you only just lost your husband tonight, but I'll wait for you, and whenever you're ready, I'll ask you to become my wife again."

Lily chuckled. "Sev, did you really believe that I handed in the divorce parchments? I merely charmed our parchments within the Ministry. We've been married all the time. Now that James is dead and my marriage with him void, I'm sure that my legal status is now 'married to Severus Snape'. You merely have to acknowledge our son if you want us to be a real family again."

"Yes, I want that," Severus replied, stunned at the information. "Lily," he said in apparent amusement, "You're an amazing Charms Mistress."

"Thank you Mr. Livesaver," Lily replied, grinning as she pointed her wand at Baby Harry, cancelling the Charms that had made him look like his former foster father James.

HP

When Poppy returned two hours later to give Harry his next dose of the Grindylow flu potion, she could not help smiling at the sight in front of her. Little Harry was fast asleep between his mother and his real father, cuddled against both parents with a small smile playing on his lips.

_'They make a wonderful little family,'_ she thought and quickly spelled the potion into Harry's system, before she quietly left the room to give the small family some much needed space.

**The End**

_Happy Halloween!_


End file.
